


Shot Down (2015)

by princelogical



Series: Old Writings (Nostalgia Nirvana) [1]
Category: The Wanted (Band)
Genre: Badly Written, Blood, Gen, Kidnapping, Old Writing, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slut Shaming, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-23
Updated: 2015-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-15 03:24:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15403890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princelogical/pseuds/princelogical
Summary: “He’s not here anymore.”“I know.”Nathan doesn’t.((Old piece of writing from 2015 posted here for archiving purposes only.))





	Shot Down (2015)

**Author's Note:**

> So, I was going through my files on my thumb drive and I found this fic I wrote back about 3 some years ago? Yeah, it’s bad. Anyway, without further ado, let me take you down memory lane when I didn’t know how injuries worked, I loved this little band called The Wanted, and when my writing style was that of a seven year old’s. 
> 
> ((I guess I should note- warnings for slut-shaming language, kidnapping, badly written violence, and PTSD.))

It’s a normal day.

The boys are just at the grocers to grab a carton of milk. Tom and Max are shoving each other into bread shelves while Siva and Jay speak in quiet voices as Nathan trails in front of them all.

“Three pounds for a carton? I’d rather go milk a cow myself!” Tom cries and Max shoves him into Siva who rolls his eyes.

“Idiot,” Nathan mutters with a smirk. “Just grab a carton and let’s get out. I hate grocery shopping.”

“Amen, mate,” Siva says.

Tom grabs a carton from the bin and shoves it at Nathan. “Check out.”

“Excuse me?”

“Check out.”

Nathan glares at Tom. “No, I hate checking out and you know it. Do it yourself.” The carton slams against Tom’s chest.

Tom’s eyes narrow. “Listen here, Sykes-“

“All right, let’s calm down,” Max says.

“Yeah, mate, no need to fight over it,” Jay adds. “Just buy the carton, Nath. I’ll give you the pounds… and seven extra. How about it?”

“Fine,” Nathan huffs.

Tom smirks and winks at Nathan. “Have fun,” he says.

“Ignore him,” Jay says, handing Nathan the cash. “You can make it fast, yeah?”

Nathan shoots Tom another glare and walks over to the counter, taking care to stomp over Tom’s feet on his way.

“Do you really have to be such a jerk to the kid?” Jay asks once Nathan’s out of earshot.

“He’s annoying,” Tom states plainly.

“I don’t care. You can at least  _try_ to be nice.”

“Seriously,” Siva adds quietly. “He’s only sixteen.”

“So? Why should I-“

“Drop it,” Max says. “Let’s quit fighting.”

Tom huffs and crosses his arms, but falls silent. Jay glances over to the counter where Nathan is checking out. Nathan hands the cashier the carton and the cashier scans it. He looks up to Nathan and recognition flashes across his face then a murderous expression took hold of his features. Nathan seems to have noticed as he seems to shrink back a little. The man says something to Nathan who frowns then shakes his head. He stands up and raises his voice slightly at Nathan.

Siva and Max both are now staring at the scene. Tom stills has his arms crossed over his chest with a sour expression.

“What’s going on?” Max asks.

“I have no idea, but I’m gonna go see,” Jay says. He walks over to Nathan.

“-no idea, sir. Please, I’ll just pay.” The boy hands the folded money out in front of him with shaking hands.

“I know you, Sykes,” the man hisses. “Tell me, is your mum still with Harry?”

“I- Sir, I… I just want to pay-“

“Nathan!” Jay says loudly, taking place by his side protectively. “Jane needs us back in fifteen minutes. Hurry up.”

The cashier retakes his seat grumpily and snatches the cash from Nathan’s hand. “Watch it, Sykes,” he barks and Nathan jumps backwards. Jay quickly places his hand gently on Nathan’s back.

“Thank you,” Nathan says quietly, picking up the milk. The two walk away quickly, neither looking back.

“Let’s go,” Jay says quickly to the three boys.

Max frowns. “What’s happened?”

“Let’s– Go–,” Jay reaffirms, punching out each word. Even Tom has the decency to look slightly concerned.

The five walk outside, the cashier’s eyes on them the entire time. Siva, Max and Tom all swivel on Jay and Nathan as soon as the doors snap shut.

“What happened?” Siva asks. “Nathan, are you okay?”

The four all focus on Nathan who’s shaking, one hand stuffed in his pocket, the other awkwardly grasping the carton of milk.

“I– He was talking about my mum and sister,” he says, voice low and trembling. “Said mum was a… a… skank who-“

“Nathan, breathe,” Max instructs sternly, but not unkindly. “Deep breath.”

Nathan glares, hating being treated like a child, but does as Max instructs.

“All right, what has happened?”

“The cashier– he said he knew me. He said that he had a…  _thing_ with my mum and she ditched him for dad. He said he’d get me back for it…”

“He’s probably bluffing,” Jay soothes. “Right?”

“Maybe not,” Tom says. Max whips around, fist clenched and Siva grabs his arm.

“Max,” he warns.

Tom raises his hands up. “I’m not trying to be mean here– I wouldn’t. But I’m just saying, there isn’t harm in being safe.”

“All right… All right,” Jay says. “Let’s go home for now, okay? We’ll discuss it more when we get home, okay?”

The four nod and begin walking down the path and Nathan unconsciously strays to the middle.

Nobody minds.

—

“Let’s just forget about it,” Nathan says. Everybody is in the living room, lying across sofas. “Yeah, it might have given me a fright, but it’s over now. We don’t need to panic over it.”

“You’re still shaking,” Tom says, rolling his eyes. “I can see how much you’ve forgotten it.”

Max shoves Tom off the couch.

“Maybe Nathan’s right: there’s no need to over-worry about it,” Siva adds.

“Exactly,” Nathan says, his eyes focused on Tom.

“All right,” Tom says with a shrug. “Let’s not give it another thought. Night.”

He walks out of the room.

“Nathan, he-“

“It’s fine. I think I’ll go to bed too. Night.” Nathan makes his way out of the room and Max sighs.

“Anyone else worried?”

“Very,” Jay says. “Don’t tell Nath, but I just have a bad feeling.”

Siva and Max nod. “Let’s just let it rest for now, okay?” Max says

“I think that would be best,” Siva agrees.

—

It’s two in the morning and Jay is woken up by the loudest scream he’s ever heard. He bolts out of bed and flips on the switch and runs into Nathan’s room where the scream comes from.

Tom is sprawled on the floor laughing his head off. Nathan sits upright on his bed, his chest heaving, wet eyes glaring daggers at Tom.

“What on  _earth_ is going on?” Jay asks.

“Mr. Prat thought it’d be sweet to come in and pretend he wanted to kidnap me.”

Tom only laughs harder.

Jay lets out a breath of relief. “You two need to figure out how to get along, seriously. I was trying to sleep.”

“Well, he needs to quit being a twit.”

“He needs to learn to take a joke,” Tom spits, standing up and shooting a glare at Nathan.

Max suddenly trudges in the room. “What are you guys doing? Who screamed?”

“It’s fine,” Jay says with a sigh. “Everything’s fine.”

Max groans and walks out of the room calling, “Don’t wake me up again!”

“It wasn’t a funny prank, Tom,” Nathan says.

“You’re just a baby. Scared over some dumb cashier-“

“That’s not true!”

“It was a joke!”

“I didn’t find it funny!”

“STOP IT!” Jay cries. “Just go back to bed.”

Nathan and Tom glare for a solid half minute then finally Tom spins around and leaves the room.

“Sorry for waking you up,” Nathan whispers.

“It’s fine. Are you sure you’re okay? You aren’t too worried about the thing that happened at the grocer’s, are you?”

Nathan carefully spreads the blanket across his legs and stares at the matte red. “I just… Dunno, it was real weird and stuff. I’ve been threatened before and… I guess it just sounded more like he meant it than some dumb kids threatening to beat you up.”

“Do you wanna go to the police? He threatened to harm you.”

He shrugs. “Nah, I think… I think it’ll be fine.”

“It will,” Jay says calmingly. “I’m sure of it.”

He wishes he’s telling the truth.

“Night, Jay.”

“Night.”

—

_//Six Months Later//_

Nathan wakes up with a dull ache in his throat and groans internally. His immune system is worthless. Throwing the covers aside, he stands up and stretches and makes his way out of his room.

He bumps right into the man from the grocer.

“What– What’re you doing here?”

The man snarls, “Did you honestly think I’d let you be, kid?” He grasps something from his belt.

Handcuffs.

“What the heck are you on about?” Nathan says, trying to keep his voice calm. “I haven’t done anything to you.”

“Your mother left me behind for your blasted father. She belonged with ME!”

“Sir, sir, please– You don’t wanna do-“

The man slams Nathan back into his room where he falls backwards onto the bed.

“Hel– fmf!” The man’s hands cover Nathan’s mouth, his strong hands bruising the boy’s jaw.

“Nathan, what’re you doing?” Nathan’s eyes widen at Tom’s voice. What is he doing home? The man snatches a knife from a leather slit on his belt and places it at Nathan’s neck.

“Say you’re fine, kid or I’ll end you right now.”

“I– I’m fine!” Nathan calls back. “Just getting dressed!”

The man grins and grabs the hand cuffs and cuffs Nathan’s right wrist to the headboard. He pulls out another pair and does the same with his left wrist. He snatches a cloth from his pocket and stuffs it into Nathan’s mouth and he gags. The man secures it with tape and looks over Nathan with a sadistic smile.

“You and your whole family’s gonna pay.” He grabs the knife and leans over Nathan who begins kicking wildly at the man. He slashes Nathan’s foot then stumbles a bit, slicing Nathan’s face just around his right eye as well. “Quit stugglin’, kid.”

He leans over and slashes Nathan’s stomach, Nathan’s eyes growing wider and wider. He tries to scream through the gag, only muffled noises coming out.

The man slaps Nathan in the face. “Shut up!”

Nathan aims a kick at the man’s groin and he falls backward into Nathan’s dresser, the wooden furniture falling over his head and smashing.

“Nathan!?” Tom. “What the heck is going on?”

Nathan frantically tries to scream through the gag, tears streaming down his face.

“I’m gonna kill him if he comes up,” the man snarls standing up and beginning to stalk over to Nathan. He leans over Nathan and trails the knife over his neck. Nathan squeezes his eyes shut, more tears slipping through.

Footsteps began making their way up the steps. “Nathan, what are you doing?”

Nathan jerks his knees upward into the man’s gut. The man falls forward, his hand slamming into Nathan’s neck. The knife tumbles from his hands onto the now bloodied bed. Nathan frantically yanks at his wrists as the man sits up, his eyes flashing in anger.

“Oh, Sykes, you are so dead.” He raises the knife and swings downward.

Nathan jerks his leg upward. The man slips slightly, falling over and stabbing himself in the forehead. Nathan screams through the gag as the man falls limp over Nathan. The door opens. Somebody runs to his bedside

“Nathan– Oh my God.”

Nathan has never been more anxious and relieved to see Tom. The older boy stares in shock for several seconds until he snaps back into reality and runs over to the boy.

“Oh my– I’ll– I’ll get this gag off, okay? Okay, lemme… Oh God.” Tom’s hands tremble as he reaches over and pulls the gag off Nathan’s face.

“Get me out of here,” Nathan whispers. “Please.”

“Where are the keys to the handcuffs?” Tom shoves the man’s body off Nathan and the boy whimpers as pain shoots from his stomach. “H-he cut you!? And on your face… Here–“ Tom reaches in the man’s pockets and pulls out two sets of keys. After a while of fumbling and trying each key, Nathan’s wrists are released. Nathan falls back against the pillows and begins to sob.

“I’m calling 999, Nathan. I-I’ll be right back.” Tom runs from the room and Nathan hears him dialing and speaking in a frantic voice.

Nathan sits up and leans into his hands, crying harder, his breathing becoming a horrible shudder.

“Nathan! Don’t try to m- Nevermind- Just… Breathe,” Tom says. He ignores the blood as he climbs onto the bed and sits beside Nathan. “I’m bad at this, I’m sorry… Where do you hurt?”

“Stomach,” Nathan whispers. “And my head. How’d he get in?”

“I have no idea,” Tom says. “The police’ll be here any second now.”

Nathan nods.

“I’ll call the boys from the hospital, okay?”

“Okay.”

Tom doesn’t leave Nathan’s side.

—

This time, Tom wakes up. Of course only Tom wakes up; he’s the lightest sleeper and the whimpering is quiet. So Tom treads down the hall and opens Nathan’s door (where, of course, the whimpering is coming from), and makes his way to Nathan’s bed.

The boy is sitting up, staring ahead with haunted eyes. They snap up to Tom.

“Nightmare?”

“Haven’t gone to sleep yet,” Nathan replies.

Tom looks down with an awkward nod. There’s bloodstains on Nathan’s carpet. They are not as bold as they once were, but they are still there despite Nathan’s daily routine of scrubbing them with peroxide. Nathan has painted over the blood on the walls with a dark blue and he threw out his old bed and bought a new one.

He sleeps at the very edge, far away from the headboard, despite it being a solid wall of brown wood.

Tom walks over to Nathan and sits beside him. Nathan flinches.

It’s one of those nights.

Tom is at a loss as to how to deal with Nathan Sykes. Nathan is so unlike him, so different and now that kid is traumatized. How is he to know what to do?

“He’s not here anymore,” Tom suggests lamely.

“I know.”

Of course Nathan knows. But he still yet is paranoid as heck that around the corner lies a man holding handcuffs and a hunting knife.

“I never found out his name,” Nathan says quietly.

“Do you wanna?”

“Kinda.”

“Gary.”

Nathan leans against Tom. “I kinda wanna move.”

“Hm?”

“I hate this stupid room; every time I come in here I relive it.”

Tom doesn’t know what to say.

“Do you ever relive it?”

Tom hesitates. His automatic response is  _no_ , but for some reason, it doesn’t come out. Maybe because it is a lie. “Yeah.”

“Does it scare you?”

Tom does not want to be having this conversation, especially when Nathan is so vulnerable. One harsh word and he’d fall apart. Tom knows from experience. Nathan needs a professional right now, not Tom Parker.

Apparently, Nathan doesn’t think so.

“Sometimes.”

“What scares you?”

Tom wants nothing more than escape.

“I guess that I saw a friend near-death. What scares you?”

“I thought I was going to die… I thought I’d die and nobody’d find me and I’d die over something that wasn’t my fault… He had me vulnerable and-“

“He’s not here anymore.”

“I know.”

Nathan doesn’t. Sometimes he cries out and shrinks from a man that no longer exists. Nathan rolls his eyes when the boys tell him the man is gone.

But he never tells them to stop.

“Nathan, you can’t stay up all night.”

“I know.”

“No, you don’t,” Tom snaps and as soon as it’s happened, he knows he has screwed up, because Nathan flinches backward and slowly backs away from Tom.

“I’m sorry.”

“I am.”

“It’s fine.”

Nothing is really fine anymore. Everything is weird and strange.

“I’ll leave…” Tom trails off.

Nathan clasps his hands together. “Okay.”

Tom leaves the room and a piece of him stays with Nathan, scrubbing the carpet once more.

—

Nathan says he wants to die.

Tom doesn’t understand and he has to stay away from Nathan or he yells at him. Tells him life could be worse. Tells him that  _you’re an idiot, Nathan_.

But Nathan says that he’d rather be dead than have to relive it all over again and again and again and again-

So Tom grabs him one night, when it’s raining outside and ties a blindfold around his eyes and slams him into the wall. Nathan’s crying and screaming and Tom simply asks if Nathan’s scared.

Nathan instantly recognizes Tom’s voice and relaxes. He punches him and yells at him to let him go.

“Were you scared?” he asks, pulling the blindfold off the boy.

“Yeah,” Nathan snaps. “Did you have some sort of point in that stupid stunt?”

“What were you scared of?”

Nathan frowns, seriously thinking about it. “It happening again.”

“That’s a weakness, Nathan.”

“You abso-“

Nathan lunges forward and grabs Tom by the collar.

“-lute prat. I’m not weak!”

He punches Tom in the face, Jay standing at the end of the hall, eyebrows furrowed, unsure which man to support.

—

Tom and Nathan are a strange sort of friendship. Max, Siva and Jay all betted that since the band had dropped and the four had moved to separate flats, Nathan back with his family, the two would never speak again.

Yet they call one another friends.

Only friends call friends at two in the morning.

“Hello?”

“Hi,” Nathan’s voice is horribly awkward on the phone. “I need help.”

“Yeah?”

“Mum wants to admit me to some psych ward.”

“And I can help how…?”

“I wanna run away and I have nowhere to stay and… I was wondering if maybe…”

“You could come to my place?”

Silence.

“Kinda.”

“Sure.”

Tom is an idiot.

—

A mental care ward is the best place for the now seventeen year old. Tom knows that, but he still opens the door when Nathan comes. He still lets him stay, even when Nathan’s nightmares are so bad that he’s hurt himself or Tom.

Even when Nathan can’t function properly.

“Nathan,” Tom begins softly, “I’m sorry.”

“What?” Nathan asks.

“I’m about to tell you something and you might hate me for it.”

Nathan stiffens in his chair and stares at Tom across the table. “What.” It’s not even a question.

“I called your mum.”

“You-“

“She’s picking you up.”

“WHY? I trusted you!”

“I know, but… it’s what’s best for you.”

“Since when have you cared what’s best?”

Those words slam Tom hard in the chest.

“I always have,” he says quietly.

“You… AH!” The doorbell rings and Nathan glares at Tom.

“I’ll never forgive you for this.”

But Nathan already has.

—

It’s Nathan’s eighteenth birthday party. He doesn’t expect anybody to come; he’s long ago lost contact with all of his friends.

But he opens up the door when the bell rings and his faces breaks into a smile as Siva, Jay, max and Tom all stand in the doorway.

“I thought… I thought you’d forgotten,” Nathan says quietly. Jay has his arms around the boy. The fact Nathan doesn’t flinch away shows a lot.

“Of course not,” Max says. “Never.” He hugs Nathan. Then Siva.

Tom stands with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

Nathan lunges forward and hugs him tightly, as if he’d never let go. “I’m sorry.” And suddenly Nathan is crying and Tom -as usual- has no idea what to do, so he just mutters something about forgiving Nathan.

That seems to satisfy the boy.

—

One year later, they’re a band again. It’s strange to think that less than three years ago, a man tortured Nathan in a house he called home.

Siva has a girlfriend. So does Tom. Jay and Max claim to be 100% ready to live the single life forever. Nathan says he doesn’t want to think about relationships.

Everybody’s cool with that.

Tom and Nathan’s friendship is still the oddest one around, but it stays the best. The jabs have fallen dull and Tom actually knows what to do when Nathan panics.

He just sits next to him.

The silence speaks louder than any words could.


End file.
